


Come again?

by XanLee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Additional Tags to Be Added, Gen, burning of questionable speeds, eventual identity reveal, not abandoned but slow to update sorry i'm waiting for the inspo to return from the war, which has not happened yet you've been warned if you're looking to read a reveal right now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-02-24 11:30:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13212813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XanLee/pseuds/XanLee
Summary: She finally broke her silence with a loud inhale, bringing her hands up to her face and dragging them down with a distressed groan. “Hey Tikki?” she began. “Is it bad that I can’t stop thinking about Chat Noir?”━━━━In which a single name-drop gets Marinette questioning the whole secret identity thing. Now featuring: #LetChatKnowThings and obligatory late-night meetings on top of Parisian landmarks.Begins during Season 2, Episode 8 "Le Hibou Noir/Dark Owl" and then becomes its own story from there. You've been warned for spoilers for that episode.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aww look it's baby's first proper fic. we don't talk about that one time I tried to write a yugioh fic and promptly abandoned it.
> 
> anyway, I have literally no idea where I want to go with this, but I wanted to get it out there in hopes that that would motivate me to actually continue it??
> 
> it's really weird writing around canon events in an episode, but after having watched the episode 20 times while making subtitles, I just couldn't stop thinking about this, so I had to.

The duo ended their playful race and settled atop a roof a few streets from the Eiffel Tower, taking this chance to catch their breath in the dusky shadow of the famous landmark of their beloved city. It was a few moments before Chat Noir began.

“He thinks he’s doing good, that M. Damocles,” he said. Ladybug’s mind froze at the name drop. She could have sworn she stopped herself before she said her principal’s full name when they saved him from falling out of that tree earlier. How did her partner know his name, then? “But one day, it’s going to end badly,” Chat finished.

Ladybug mentally shook herself, knowing she had to play it cool. There had to be an explanation and she would think about it later.

The two continued conversing about their dilemma a bit longer, with Ladybug quickly devising a plan and simply telling him to meet her tomorrow afternoon. They then said their goodbyes, Chat giving a cordial bow, to which Ladybug rolled her eyes, before both leaping off the building and shooting off in their own directions. 

━━━━

Later that night, as Marinette painted the green paw print on the fake black cat miraculous, she found herself unable to keep her thoughts at bay. It was obvious to her that The Owl was actually a misguided M. Damocles, as she saw him on a regular basis and had noticed his odd behavior coinciding with the new “superhero”’s appearance. But she was sure she hadn’t said his name in full in front of her partner, knowing she had to pretend to not know anybody in Paris for the sake of her identity. Sure, she had slipped part of her principal’s name out of frustration with him, but she realized her mistake before she finished it.

So how had Chat figured out The Owl’s identity as well? And he had the nerve to mention it so casually! Didn’t that alley cat realize what he was doing? Though frustrated, Marinette decided it would be better to not scold him for it and just accept that they both knew M. Damocles’ little hobby. It seemed that Chat Noir had by the way he mentioned him without hesitation on the roof a few hours earlier. She didn’t want to risk Ladybug and Chat talking about it more and accidentally dropping a few more hints.

Despite this, she still couldn’t help but wonder how exactly Chat knew M. Damocles. Marinette set the black ring down and picked up a fake red earring as she stewed in her thoughts. She grabbed a toothpick from her desk and dipped it in a bit of black paint. The girl steadied her elbow on her thigh as she brought the toothpick to the jewelry.

Chat Noir couldn’t possibly go to Collège Françoise Dupont, could he? _Spot._ Out of all the schools in Paris, what were the chances he just so happened to go to the same one as her? _Spot._ Perhaps M. Damocles was a neighbor? _Spot._ Or a family friend? _Spot._ Or maybe Chat’s family owned a store and M. Damocles was a frequent customer? _Spot._

Marinette shook herself back into focus, looking at her work on the earring she held, now fully adorned in its spots. She carefully set it down and picked up the other one, resigning herself to her work, as it was getting late and she still had a cardboard suit to finish.

━━━━

To say that the next day was eventful would be an understatement.

As soon and Ladybug and Chat Noir had gone through the motions of reassuring M. Damocles after purifying the akuma, Ladybug made her escape. Thankfully, they were both almost out of time after using their powers for the second time, so no excuse for being hasty was necessary.

The spotted heroine flung herself through the famous city streets, her yoyo grappling onto antiquated chimneys and gargoyles on churches. Her mind raced just as fast as her body did, with no distinct thoughts happening, but rather a blizzard of general panic. She landed on her balcony, ducking behind a potted plant before her transformation expired.

An exhausted Tikki landed on Marinette’s shoulder. Marinette placed a gentle kiss on her kwami’s head before opening the hatch and silently slipping into her room. She cupped the little red creature in her hands and set her on a pillow on the bed, and then hopped down from the loft to dig a couple of sweets out of the stash in her desk. The girl climbed back up, handing the cookies to Tikki, before finally crashing onto her oh-so comfortable bed.

Marinette stared at the ceiling above her. She finally had the chance to catch her breath, and the sudden feeling of exhaustion as the adrenaline wore out hit her like a ton of bricks. Not just physical exhaustion from fighting. Mental exhaustion from turning her thoughts over and over in her head almost non-stop since the day before. Emotional exhaustion coming so close to having her identity revealed not once, but _twice_. She and Chat had even dropped their transformations in front of each other! Sure, they both kept their eyes tightly closed, or at least she ~~hoped~~ trusted that he had, but the mere thought of having done that chilled her.

Tikki glanced over at her friend, worried as the teen lay there silently, eyes glazed over and face blank.

For the first time that day, Marinette had the chance to think properly. There had been the hour or so between her plan with Cardboard Girl failing and when Dark Owl made his broadcast, but she had opted for escapism behind her faithful sewing machine then. Now, though, it was too late to be running her machine. And now, she had even more to think about.

She finally broke her silence with a loud inhale, bringing her hands up to her face and dragging them down with a distressed groan. “Hey Tikki?” she began. “Is it bad that I can’t stop thinking about Chat Noir?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah again, I'm not even sure if I'll continue this because I have approximately no idea where I'm gonna go with it. is it gonna be a reveal fic? will it just be Marinette stewing in her thoughts? will side characters show up? will there be romance? we just don't know. sorry lmao.


	2. Chapter 2

Marinette’s question echoed through her silent room as Tikki paused her chewing on a cookie to think of an answer.

_“Is it bad that I can’t stop thinking about Chat Noir?”_

Another moment passed before the teen turned her head to look at her tiny friend sitting on the pillow beside her. “Oh, Marinette…” Tikki said sympathetically as she flew up to the girl’s face to nuzzle her cheek.

“I mean, I really think my resolve for the whole keeping-our-identities-secret thing is starting to break. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out,” Marinette admitted woefully. She let out another groan. “Why does being a superhero have to be this complicated?”

“It just comes with the territory, unfortunately,” Tikki answered knowingly. “But you’re one of the smartest Ladybugs I’ve ever met, Marinette,” she continued in an attempt to turn things around, “I’m sure you’ll be able to get through this. And you can always talk to me, you know.”

“In that case,” Marinette sat up in her bed, cupping her hands in front of her as an invitation for her kwami to settle in there, “can I ask you a few questions?”

Tikki nodded with an encouraging gentle smile. “Of course.”

Marinette took a deep breath. She knew she would have to face it eventually, it might as well be now. “Well…” she began, her eyes wandering off to gaze at nothing in particular, “...how has this gone down with Ladybugs and Chat Noirs in the past?” Her eyes returned to meet Tikki’s. “I mean, time-wise. With the whole identity thing.”

“Every Ladybug is unique,” the little creature replied simply.

The girl rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. I… I guess I’m just asking you to give me some examples to help prepare myself for when it happens for me.”

“ _If_ it happens for you,” Tikki pointedly corrected. “Not every Ladybug and Chat Noir have chosen to reveal themselves to each other. There’s not really a standard when it comes to this sort of thing.”

“Okay, well I can’t really imagine it not happening this time, given the past couple of days.”

“I suppose you’re right about that,” her kwami agreed, flying out of Marinette’s hands to float off to her side.

“A-ha! So you do think it’ll happen!” Marinette exclaimed with an accusative finger pointed at Tikki.

“What can I say? You two have some real chemistry, some of the best I’ve ever seen between a Ladybug and a Chat.” The miniature demi-goddess darted back to her pillow and resumed nibbling at the cookie she had abandoned.

Chemistry.

_Chemistry._

“Chemistry!” Marinette yelped a little bit too loudly for the time of night it was. She jumped out of bed, changed into some comfortable pajama pants, and settled in at her desk for what would be yet another long night, this time filled with chemistry homework.

━━━━

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng! You’re late again! Go to the principal’s office!” Mme Mendeliev croaked at her as she walked into the classroom. Obediently, Marinette stopped in her tracks and turned herself around on her heel. She walked down the hall to the principal’s office, knocking before slowly poking her head inside.

“So nice of you to join us, Buginette,” Chat Noir greeted her playfully. “You know M. Damocles, right?” Her teammate gestured a gloved hand to the older gentleman behind the desk.

She stepped inside, brows furrowed as she looked at her principal, then at her partner, then at her own hands. Forget the oddity of Chat being there, _when had she transformed?_

“The Owl here just wanted to know if we had any suggestions for how he could help out without putting himself in danger,” the blond boy elaborated.

But Marinette wasn’t listening. She shook her head and ran out the door, only for it to lead directly to her homeroom classroom. She looked back down at her hands, stunned to see her bare skin once again.

Although shaken, she did her best to regain her composure and made her way to her seat. She viciously dug in her backpack, trying to find a pencil that seemingly wasn’t there.

“Need to borrow one? I’ve got a spare,” said a sweetly familiar voice sitting next to her. Marinette jolted up and turned to face the voice, only to be met with the most intensely green eyes framed in black.

Panicked, she quickly averted her eyes across the aisle. Chat Noir greeted her with a wink and a salute. She looked back to the person sitting next to her. Seeing that it was Alya, Marinette breathed a sigh of relief.

That relief only lasted an instant, however, as she soon noticed a figure clad in black in her peripheral, sitting in front of her, one blond boy replacing another that normally sat there.

And then her alarm went off.

━━━━

Marinette startled awake from her dream - _nightmare?_ \- and sat up as she took in her surroundings. She glanced down at her desk, which was a mess of scattered papers and open books. Her phone sounded its alarm from on top of a periodic table in her open chemistry book. She figured she must have found her way to bed after finishing her homework, though she didn’t recall doing so.  
The groggy girl stretched her arms above her head with a yawn and rose from the warmth of her bed. She trudged down from her loft to her mess of a desk to snatch up her phone and silence it. 

Marinette went through the motions of her morning routine, though she was slowed down by having to pack up her books and papers that she had left strewn about last night. Because of this, she didn’t have time to sit down for breakfast, instead opting to grab a croissant on her way through the bakery and eat it on her walk to school.

She met Alya on the steps outside of the school and they made their way to class, Alya immediately diving into the happenings of last night after the Dark Owl’s city-wide broadcast calling on the two famous heroes. On her phone, she showed Marinette a few pictures that some others had snapped of the duo as they flew through the streets, as well as a few photos of the bus hanging from the Eiffel Tower that, fortunately, ended up being a hologram. Marinette wasn’t very engaged in the conversation, she normally didn’t get too involved in her best friend’s ranting and raving in an attempt to stay fairly neutral about Paris’ saviors. But today especially, she didn’t want to be reminded of what happened the day before, so she just provided a few nods and “mhmm”s as Alya scrolled through the fan photos that had been submitted to the Ladyblog. Alya didn’t seem to mind, too absorbed in her own fangirling to really notice Marinette’s distant mind, or perhaps chalking it up to her friend not exactly being a morning person. Or maybe a bit of both. Probably a bit of both.

The two girls entered the classroom and took their seats, and class began just a few moments later.

The first half of the day passed by agonizingly slowly for Marinette, as she found it even more difficult to focus than usual. She was exhausted from staying up late to finish her homework, and the lessons went right over her head. Her dream had lingered in her subconscious, and she constantly felt like a certain partner of hers was sitting just outside of her peripheral vision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so I think I actually know where I want this to go, kind of, sort of. I at least have a vague idea now. I've had this other idea floating around in my head for like a month and a half and I thought of a way I could just combine it with this so I figure that's what I'll do. still no idea what kind of romance will work its way into here though, if any. I'm 95% sure it'll end up being a reveal fic at the very least because I could read reveal fics for eternity okay I live for this trope and y'all can pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
> 
> obligatory "this chapter was gonna be longer but I just wanted to get it out for my own sanity so I decided to throw the last scene into the next chapter" note. also we'll be out of weird working-around-canon-in-episode-events territory very shortly, do not fret.
> 
> but anyway, I promise I'll start actually figuring out an outline for where I want this to go so I can let y'all know what you're in for and clean up the mess of a summary/lack of tags it has lmao.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was... a bit iffy about including a certain part of this just out of sensitivity, but I wrote that part at about 3am and made myself cry with it, and by the time I had finished writing it, I had come up with a way to connect it to a future plot point, and there wasn't really any replacing it at that point. You can probably guess what part I'm talking about when you read it.

Lunch hour couldn’t come fast enough. Marinette threw together a sandwich when she got home, and excused herself to her room to eat, saying she wanted to study for a quiz she had next period. She really just wanted to be alone.

Once there, she opened her purse to let Tikki fly out, who perched herself on top of the computer monitor as Marinette took a seat at her desk.

Marinette silently nibbled at her sandwich for a handful of minutes before Tikki finally swished over to sit on her shoulder, making the teen jump an inch out of her chair. She regarded the little red creature with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, come on, Marinette. I know something’s wrong. Remember, you can talk to me,” Tikki said, reaching a tiny paw up to touch her holder’s cheek supportively.

Marinette’s head dropped with a sigh. She stared at the sandwich she held in her lap, chewing at the inside of her cheek as she considered what to say.

“You know, you got distracted by your homework last night,” Tikki added, a playful smile growing on her face, “I never got to tell you about past Ladybugs.”

That caught Marinette’s attention. “Oh, Tikki, please, please tell me!” she begged, her eyes sparkling. She sat up, pulling her legs underneath her to sit cross-legged in her chair as her kwami darted from of off her shoulder to sit on the desk.

“Well, like I said, it’s gone differently every time,” Tikki began, “but most of the time, Ladybug and Chat Noir have ended up revealing themselves to each other. A handful have even revealed themselves to the world, whether on purpose or not.”

Marinette listened intently as the kwami began delving into a couple of stories about specific heroines in history, all the while wolfing down her sandwich as if it were popcorn and she was at a movie.

“There was the Ladybug that stopped King Tut from performing the ritual to bring his wife back. She and that Chat Noir never revealed themselves; they went their separate ways shortly after that battle, both claiming different areas to watch over until they retired their miraculouses.” Tikki looked away wistfully, as if lost in memories.

“On the other hand, the last time Ladybug and I were in this part of the world, she and Chat revealed themselves almost immediately! Not to play into any stereotypes, but it was actually right here in this city during the Revolution, and they fell in love at first sight. Actually...” she giggled, “I was a bit surprised when that didn’t happen with you!”

Marinette jolted up, spine straight as an arrow and mouth agape, before closing it to pout and furrow her brows at Tikki. “Hey!” she yelped as she poked her kwami’s tiny belly with a finger. Tikki laughed the action, folding her arms over her middle to protect from any more attacks.

“I’m just playing with you, Marinette!” she excused herself at the end of her laughter. She gave the girl a sweet apologetic smile, and Marinette playfully rolled her eyes. “Anyway, don’t get too mad at me, because I still want to tell you about one more duo,” Tikki explained. The teen shoved the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth and nodded that she was ready.

“Well, there was the time in Poland in the 1940s…” she began solemnly. Marinette was silent and still. “They tried to stay as hidden as possible for their own safety, so much so that they were more of a myth in most people’s minds. They worked together and made an excellent team, but their relationship was strictly business as they worked under the cover of moonless nights.” Tikki’s head drooped as she told her story. “She and Chat did a lot of good, they saved countless lives helping people flee to safer places, but it was hard for them to have to be so closed off from each other.”

The kwami made eye contact with her dear holder. “But after everything was over, they finally got to get to know each other,” she said with a sad smile. “Sure, they had both lost some loved ones, but they made it through together. They spent a few of months talking in costume as they helped clean up and reunite families, and they became the best of friends in that time. That was when they decided it was finally safe to know who each other was. So they did just that, and continued to help rebuild as both their superhero selves and their civilian selves for another few years before they went off and travelled the world together.” She wiped a tear from her big, blue eye. “They...They didn’t transform very often after that, it only brought up bad memories for them. But those two were inseparable. It was…” Tikki blubbered, “It was so nice… the four of us… me, her, Chat Noir, and his kwami…”

At this point, Tikki was fully crying, and Marinette took her little friend into her hands, holding her against her shoulder as one would a child. Tikki grabbed onto her and let out a couple of choked sobs, before finally sniffling and pulling away from her holder’s body, still sitting in her hands. “Thank you, Marinette. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get so emotional.”

“It’s okay, Tikki...” the girl reassured her with a gentle thumb stroking the spot on her head.

Marinette placed a kiss on her kwami’s head, before replaying in her head one of the lines that she had said. _“It was so nice… the four of us… me, her, Chat Noir, and his kwami…”_

She suddenly jerked back to look at Tikki in the eyes. “Chat’s kwami?” Though obvious in retrospect, Marinette had never considered the idea of Tikki being close to Chat Noir’s kwami. They were, after all, two out of only a handful of their kind, and these two seemed to be a bit of a package deal. “Were…” Marinette reconsidered her word choice, “...are you close with Chat Noir’s kwami?” she asked.

Tikki nodded, blinking the last tears out of her eyes. “You can’t really not be close to someone when you’ve spent millennia together,” she affirmed. “Even if he is a pain sometimes…” she added quietly. Marinette giggled at that. It reminded her of herself with Chat Noir, just not the “millennia” part, as they’d only been fighting by each other’s sides for a little less than a year. But to Marinette, it felt so natural, she was so at ease with him that it felt like she’d known him forever.

“You haven’t seen him since then…” Marinette said more to herself than to her kwami.

“Well, I haven’t gotten to talk to him since that Ladybug and Chat Noir retired their miraculouses,” Tikki half-agreed.

And then it hit her. The realization that Tikki _had_ seen Chat’s kwami since then, very recently actually, crashed over Marinette like icy water. Yesterday. Fighting the Dark Owl. She and Chat Noir had de-transformed in front of each other. Tikki got to see his kwami for the first time in however many decades, but didn’t get to actually talk to him. _And Tikki had seen Marinette’s partner as a civilian._

_Tikki knew who was behind that black mask._

This was not good. This was bad. Marinette froze, staring at Tikki with her mouth open. She had been so absorbed in the M. Damocles situation that she hadn’t even realized the implications of her escape plan yesterday, that de-transforming meant their kwami’s would see everything. The little goddess in her hands raised a brow at her odd behavior, waving an arm in attempt to snap the teen back into reality.

Marinette closed her mouth and shook her head before looking back at Tikki. “You saw Chat de-transformed.” The words fell out of her mouth before she realized it. “You know who he is.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been freaking out about this whole time?” Tikki questioned, confused.

“What? No! I’ve been freaking out about him knowing who M. Damocles was before I ever said it! I mean, the most probably way I can think of Chat knowing _my principal_ is that he's _his principal_ , too!”

“Ohhh…” whispered Tikki. “Right, of course,” she said, a bit stronger this time as she floated out of Marinette’s hands and back over to sit on top of the computer monitor, making a point not to make eye contact with the girl, as not to give her any hints about whether or not her conclusion was right. 

“But there could be someway else Chat knows him, but I don’t know if I want to know how he does and…” Marinette rambled. “Ugh, this is a mess,” she groaned as she slumped back in her chair, arms falling to her sides.

“Well,” the little red kwami tried to console, “I told you about that Polish Ladybug and Chat Noir because, personally, I think that’s the best approach to this issue; to wait until the danger is defeated to show who you are.” Marinette eyed her. “But that’s just not how it always goes. Maybe it would be helpful to go talk to Master Fu about it for another perspective,” Tikki recommended.

The girl nodded resolutely. “That sounds like a plan.” She instantly felt a thousand times better, able to finally regain her composure.

“And try not to worry too much until then,” her kwami added, “our power is luck, after all. I’m sure things will play out fine in the end.”

With that, Marinette stood up, placed a kiss on Tikki’s head, and began gathering her belongings to head back to school. “You’re the best, you know,” she said as she closed her purse and walked out onto the street. She had a new spring in her step that she had been missing for a few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it has not been above 20 degrees fahrenheit in the past 2 weeks, I'm about to get hit by a foot of snow tomorrow, and then the next day, the high temperature will barely get above 0. Plus my mom is in the hospital with flu/pneumonia so I'm stressed about that. so basically, I'm a shut-in at the moment and this is all I'm doing for the next few days. don't get used to this frequency of updates. I promise it won't last.
> 
> also shameless self-promo because I recently made an ML sideblog on tumblr and I'm lonely there because I only have approximately one (1) mutual on my main that likes ML. come be my friend. it's sadrien-depreste.tumblr.com lmao


	4. Chapter 4

Marinette returned to school feeling refreshed after her kwami had told her stories about past Ladybugs and recommended that she go talk to Master Fu sometime soon as well. The second half of her school day passed by much easier, as she found herself only having to keep her thoughts away from daydreaming about Adrien rather than panicking about Chat Noir.

The final bell sounded, bringing with it a flurry of movement as students frantically gathered their belongings in an attempt to get out as fast as possible to enjoy the weekend. Marinette joined suit, only slightly distracted by watching the boy in front of her, until Alya finally elbowed her. “Come on, lover-girl, you’re staring. Let’s go,” she said. Marinette answered with a finger held up to her lips, warning her friend to can it.

They picked up their school bags and started toward the lockers, Marinette purposefully glaring at Alya the whole way. What if Adrien had heard her? She would die of embarrassment! Just drop dead right then and there in front of him.

It wasn’t until they were finished swapping out books to take home and leave at school that Marinette finally spoke again. “...Hey, Alya?” she quietly resigned.

“Hmm?” Alya replied.

“Can I borrow your algebra book over the weekend? I think I left mine in the chemistry lab this morning…”

“Oh, Marinette...” she answered with a playful roll of the eyes and shake of the head. She closed her locker and gestured toward the door with her head and began walking. Marinette slammed her locker door and followed, almost tripping over her own feet. “Of course you can, but only if you come over tonight,” the brunette finished with a wink.

As the two made their way out the main door of the school, Marinette noticed M. Damocles standing there attentively, making sure all of the students made it out of the building. _I thought he would be done with this whole “Owl” shtick_ , Marinette thought to herself.

“I, um… have to do a few chores at home first,” she lied, “but I should be able to. Give me an hour or so and I’ll let you know if I can or not, okay?”

“Fair enough,” Alya agreed, “I’ll see you in a bit then.” She patted Marinette on the shoulder before they parted ways.

━━━━

Upon arriving home, Marinette hastily greeted her mother at the register in the bakery before heading up to her room. “No time to lose, Tikki,” she said as she dropped her backpack and opened her purse. “M. Damocles is up to something again and I’ve got a best friend to spend time with. Transform me!”

And with that, her normal clothes melted into a red and black bodysuit with a yoyo at the hip. The heroine scurried up to her balcony and tossed her yoyo to wrap around a nearby chimney, and she was off.

Ladybug’s first stop was, naturally, the Collège Françoise Dupont, figuring she could catch the Owl leaving his nest. Surely he would take longer to take flight than her, seeing as how he had a school to close up and didn’t have the luxury of magical instant transformation.

So she settled on a roof a few buildings back and across the street and watched, anxiously checking the time on her yoyo every thirty seconds. She really, _really_ did not want to have to bail on Alya again. 

A few minutes passed before she finally spotted some movement on the side of the school building. She opened her yoyo, checking the time quickly before pulling up the camera to zoom in and confirm that it was indeed the Owl. She still had a little over half an hour before she had promised to let her friend know if she was coming over or not.

He peeked his head out, looking left and right for any witnesses, not that it particularly mattered as the whole city knew his identity by now, before shimmying out of the door and gently closing it behind him. The wannabe hero held up his cape like wings before starting into a slow run down the side street.

Ladybug decided that she would trail behind him and simply observe. No need to intervene if the Owl was behaving himself, after all.

And apparently, Chat Noir had come to a similar conclusion. As she swung to land on the roof of the school itself, a certain partner of hers came into view on top of a building on the side of the street she had just been on, previously hidden by the short stone wall that he was crouched behind. He stood up and began in the direction the Owl had taken off to, as light on his feet as ever.

The heroine paused to consider her options.

She could leave him to take care of things so she wouldn’t have to cancel on Alya again if this took too long. But that wasn’t fair, she and Chat Noir were a team, and she figured that he must have a personal life and something to do on a Friday night too. It would be selfish of her to not sacrifice her free-time while he sacrificed his.

Or she could do what she knew was the right thing and join him, even if it did have the possibility of making her feel like the worst best friend in the world.

So Ladybug flung her yoyo around a chimney a couple meters ahead of Chat, making sure to give him enough time to notice it before she swung over. Didn’t want to startle him and blow their cover, after all.

The boy froze and his gaze traced the string back to Ladybug. His eyes shone bright with a childish smile as they followed her through the air. “Fancy meeting you here, my Lady,” he greeted as she landed square in front of him, only to be shushed.

“We don’t want _him_ ,” she gestured her hand down the street as she whispered, “to know we’re watching over him. And we don’t want to lose track of him either, let’s go.”

The Owl had made some decent headway during this exchange, luckily not having made any turns down side-streets. The duo made chase side-by-side through their beloved capital, until they found themselves overlooking a park. 

They silently observed as the Owl approached a woman looking up at a cat stuck in a tree. He spoke to her briefly before pulling out his phone and making a call. After giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, he swung his cape around theatrically and ran over to a disheveled man sitting on a bench. The Owl took a seat next to him and began talking. A few moments later, he pulled a couple of granola bars and a compact camping blanket out of his tool belt, handing them to his neighbor. The man’s face instantly lit up when he saw the gifts.

Ladybug felt her face light up as well. “Looking over parks, helping out the homeless, he’s really turned over a new leaf,” she said admiringly.

“He’s a superhero in his own way,” replied Chat.

“As for us, we finally have free-time again,” Ladybug pointed out.

An all-too-familiar grin settled on her partner’s face. “You wanna go see a movie?” he asked.

Turning to him, she answered, “Sorry, but I promised a friend that I’d spend more time with her. See you soon, kitty.” The heroine gave a friendly wave, and just like that, she was off.

━━━━

Ladybug let muscle memory take over as she flew through the city. This, unfortunately, allowed her to start thinking. As if she hadn’t done enough of that the past couple of days.

_I just came to check on my principal because he was rushing students out of school today. Chat Noir and I hadn’t planned to meet up today, and he seemed to be doing the same thing as me. He must have known that M. Damocles was acting fishy, why else would he have just happened to be transformed, watching over the school, and following the Owl as he left his nest?_

But she didn’t let that train of thought continue. Ladybug landed on her balcony and let her transformation fade, leaving Marinette in its wake. She had a friend to go hang out with and she wasn’t going to miss it because she was freaking out about her superhero partner’s identity. No, Tikki had already suggested that she see Master Fu soon, and until then, she had resolved to not worry about it.

Marinette dropped into her bedroom and ran to her phone. Good, no missed messages or calls from Alya. It was only a little over an hour after they had parted ways, perfect timing for when she had agreed to call. Thank heavens the Owl hadn’t stirred up any trouble to hold her up.

She tapped the button to call her friend and held the phone up to her ear with a shoulder as she dug a cookie out of her drawer for Tikki. “Oh hey, Alya. Yeah I’ll be over thirty. Yes, I’ll bring Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Yes, and a cupcake from the bakery. Okay, see you soon.”

Pajamas, video games and an extra controller, and a handful of cookies were all stuffed into her backpack. Marinette didn’t bother taking her school things out, knowing she’d have to ask Alya if she could copy notes from that morning, and that the two would be doing their algebra homework together given the disappearance of her own textbook. She said goodbye to her parents with a kiss on her way out, assuring them that, yes, she’d be back by dinner tomorrow, and asking if she could nab a couple of the day-old cupcakes for Alya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the exposition is going slower than I want it to and I'm so sorry for that lmao I'm new to this whole """writing""" thing other than translating other people's works so this is a learning experience for me.
> 
> also update: my mom is doing well and *should* be getting out of the hospital today so that's swell. thank you for your well-wishes.
> 
> p.s. I am dying from how cold it is here send help the literal temperature is negative 2 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind chill is negative 20.  
> p.p.s. I know a lot of people don't like notes with authors talking about their personal lives but frankly I don't know how to shut the heck up ~~sometimes~~ ever I'm sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you look closely, you can see me struggling not to turn this into Alyanette. I've now promised myself that I have to write Alyanette in the future.

“You are so going down, girl!” Alya taunted as she rose from her stomach and sat on her heels to begin collecting her belongings.

Marinette remained laying on the floor of her friend’s bedroom, surrounded by books and papers and folders strewn all around her, not looking up from her last equation as she replied, “In your dreams. You’ve only ever beaten me once, and we both know that was because you cheated.” She finished scrawling a few numbers, then looked at her work satisfied, before looking up at Alya with a smirk.

The accused crossed her arms with a hmph and looked away. “It was not cheating. It was just... strategic distraction,” she explained.

“You call yelling ‘Oh, hey there Adrien!’ before hitting me with your special combo move _not_ cheating?” Marinette countered as she sat up. “Because that sounds pretty cheat-y if you ask me.”

“No, it’s not cheating when you’re playing against one of the best Ultimate Mecha Strike III players in the whole school, the entire city even. I need some sort of handicap to make it fair. And _I_ just so happen to know your weakness. Therefore, I rule: not cheating.” She looked down at her friend, who sighed playfully, and deposited her books onto her desk before continuing, “I’m going to check that my parents don’t want to use the television; meet me out there when you’re ready.”

Marinette fished around for her extra controller and copy of the game in her backpack before putting her now-complete schoolwork back in. Standing up, she quickly whipped her head around in search of Tikki, who came out of hiding underneath Alya’s bed to give a small nod, urging Marinette to go have fun. The girl nodded back and left to go join her best friend.

━━━━

The two battled it out for nearly an hour, with the ending score being 16-0 in favor of Marinette, unsurprisingly. Alya wasn’t much of a gamer, but she enjoyed playing, especially the few times that she had almost managed to pull one over on the reigning champion. Of course, Marinette had always been able to turn it around, using her precarious position to her advantage, and leading to Alya whooping and hollering in panicked protest while Marinette did a little victory dance in her seat.

The day was growing old, however, as the sun set behind the iconic Parisian skyline. Everybody was called to dinner, and Marinette excused herself for a moment to bring the gaming things back to the bedroom (and to check in on Tikki) before promptly joining the Césaires at the dinner table. As much as Marinette loved her parents’ cooking, she had to admit that this was one of her favorite things about sleeping over at her best friend’s house.

They helped clean up after the meal before retiring to Alya’s room to change into pajamas and curl up under the blankets on her bed and put on some B-list movie on her laptop. Neither really paid attention as they chatted idly, complaining about classes, Chloé, and naturally, boys.

“All I’m saying,” Alya elaborated, “is that if Nino doesn’t step up his game soon, I will.” She looked down at Marinette, whose head was resting on her shoulder. “...And speaking of people who need to step their game up…”

Marinette sprung up. “Huh? Me? Oh, no no no, don’t you turn your relationship venting onto me.” She pouted.

“Fine, fine. But you’ll thank me someday...” Alya responded devilishly.

And with that, the subject was dropped, and the two turned their sleepy focus back to the film in front of them before finally dozing off.

━━━━

Marinette woke up enveloped in warmth, both inside and out. This was exactly what she needed after the past couple of days, and she was so glad that she was able to follow through with it. She noticed that Alya was already awake next to her, scrolling through her phone lazily as she squinted from the lack of glasses. Marinette grabbed them from the nightstand next to her and handed them over.

“Ah, the sleepyhead arises,” Alya commented as she put on her glasses. “Thanks. Anyway, Maman should have left some breakfast for us out in the kitchen before she went to work. Let’s go eat.”

Marinette grumbled. “Ten more minutes…” she said, rolling over onto her side and pulling all the blankets with her.

Eventually, Marinette was reluctantly dragged out of bed and they got on with their day. Breakfast was lazily eaten and proper clothes thrown on, and soon enough, they were headed out the door to peruse the weekend flea markets.

━━━━

By the time the warm early afternoon had rolled around, they had found themselves at a small corner café. Marinette had spent most of her babysitting money on trinkets, fabric scraps, and food, and they were both about ready to call it quits for the day. They made their way back to the Césaire residence after finishing their lunch, where Marinette retrieved her backpack and they said their goodbyes.

Marinette opened her purse once out of Alya’s view. “We’re going to make a stop before we go home, okay?” she said to Tikki. Tikki nodded.

And so she began her detour through the streets of her dear city, absorbing the liveliness of the weekend that floated in the glowing air. She heard the people talking, laughing, sharing pleasantries and secrets alike. She saw couples clinging to each other and children playing in the parks. She smelled flowers and coffee and pastries. She took it all in with pride, knowing that this city, her city, bustled on thanks to her and her partner.

And soon enough, she had arrived at a paper screen door, and was about to knock on the wooden frame when she heard a voice inside invite her in.

She smiled and opened the door; of course he knew that she was there. He always knew. She didn’t know how, but he did, and today was no exception.

Tikki burst out of her purse as soon as she stepped through the door frame, darting over to tackle-hug the turtle kwami floating above Master Fu’s shoulder. Marinette giggled at the sight as the two spun around in the air from the force of Tikki’s impact, before greeting the old man sitting in front of her with a small “hello” and sat down herself.

“Hello, Marinette. Something is on your mind, is it?” he asked, finally opening his eyes to look.

She immediately straightened up. “Ah, er, well…” she stuttered and then slunk back down, avoiding Master Fu’s gaze. “I’ve just been having some… thoughts. About the whole secret identity thing. And, well, Tikki recommended that I come talk to you about it, and so,” Marinette looked up with shrug and a nervous smile, “here I am?”

He glanced behind him at Tikki and Wayzz, who were now chatting with each other next to the ornate gramophone. “I am glad she did so, then. I know that such things can be difficult to grapple with.” He stood up slowly and began toward the short wooden table off to the side. There was a dazzling tea set upon it. “So tell me what’s troubling you,” he said as he carefully poured tea into two cups. He made his way back to Marinette sitting on her heels on the mat and held a teacup out to her.

“Well, you see,” the girl started as she took the tea he offered, “I think Chat Noir and I might have accidentally given each other a little hint on our identities.” She sipped at her beverage. The taste was of pleasant ginger, and it warmed her to the core as she shivered at that thought. “I don’t know if he even realizes it, actually.” She was staring at the cup she held in her lap with both hands, watching a couple specks of tea leaves dance around each other in the current. Looking back up at Master Fu, she continued, “And I don’t even want to know what’s going on in his head if he does realize.”

Master Fu remained silent, his gentle regard urging her to continue. “I’m sure you heard about the Owl, right? I mean, he’s been all over the media this week. Chat Noir and I kept having to save him from hurting himself and other people, and it was obvious to me that he was actually my principal, M. Damocles,” her words were quickly picking up pace and spilled out of her as she worked herself up about the whole situation all over again. “So I almost accidentally called him that once, while he was dressed as the Owl, that is, but I’m sure I didn’t get his whole name out, but then once we had left the scene, Chat called him M. Damocles, so maybe he heard me almost say it and figured there was no point in pretend we didn’t both know who it was, but how does Chat know him, and now Chat knows that I know him too, and this is all a disaster and-”

“Marinette, take a breath,” Fu interrupted softly. She obeyed, noticing that both of the kwamis ahead of her had turned their attentions to her rambling as well. “A disaster is what you call something that you have no control of. You are in control of this. You both are,” his kind eyes looked into hers warmly.

“Yeah, well… I don’t feel very in-control anymore…” Marinette trailed off, leaving Master Fu to raise a brow. She huffed and took another sip of her tea before continuing. “I… I feel like I’m starting to lose my resolve, y’know? I just can’t stop wondering who he might be, I’m worried that I’ll start noticing little things that I wouldn’t have noticed before, and I’ll figure it out by accident or… something. I don’t know. And I don’t like it.” She leaned in, cupping a hand on the side of her mouth as she whispered, “And the worst part is, Tikki knows who he is. She saw him de-transformed.” Her gaze shifted over the old man’s shoulder to her kwami, who had restarted her conversation with the other. “Do you know how hard it is knowing that she knows? I mean, I’m with her all the time!”

Master Fu closed his eyes and sipped his tea thoughtfully. It was a moment until he spoke again, “Do you want to know who he is?”

Marinette gulped her tea down painfully. “Er, no! I mean, I don’t know. I mean… Yes? Of course I do. You’re not about to tell me, are you?” she asked with wide eyes.

He chuckled, “Of course not. That’s not up to me, it’s between you and him, after all. But you do want to know, yes?”

“Well yes, but it would put our loved ones in danger, I know, I know,” she doled out as if she had said it a hundred times before. (She had, in her head at least.)

“I said nothing about why you shouldn’t do it.”

Marinette cocked her head, “So you’re saying we should do it?”

“I’m saying that you two should talk about it to decide what will be best for you,” Master Fu answered as he rose to move over to the tea table to refill his cup. Marinette’s head followed him. “I’m assuming Tikki told you some stories, yes? Why not invite him here to talk about how your story should go?”

Her eyes widened, “But-”

“I didn’t want you two to know about me, but seeing as how you already do, there’s no point in keeping him in the dark,” Fu explained calmly as he turned back to face her. “And three heads are better than two!” he added with a smile.

“I suppose you’re right… And it’s not really fair to him…” Marinette said lowly. Then, turning resolute, she added, “Okay, I’ll invite-”

She was promptly interrupted by the sound of panicked cries out in the streets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, yes, gotta love that cliché chapter ending. I'm so sorry for that. I'm a little ashamed, tbh, but whatever. Boy I am not looking forward to writing an action scene idk why I did this to myself send help.
> 
> Also geez sorry it's been like 2 weeks since an update, I lost approximately all of my inspiration for a little while. I've also been (very slowly) working on translating another of the lovely [Mindell's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Mindell/pseuds/Mindell) fics, as well as translating/freaking out about Glaciator. I'm sure you understand.
> 
> [Come bug me on tumblr.](https://sadrien-depreste.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't been in a ballet class in over a decade, nor have I ever written action before now (if you can even call this action, I kinda accidentally avoided most of the action whoops), so I'm so sorry about that. I don't know why I set myself up to write an akuma attack. Please bear with me lmao.

Marinette was stood at attention within a second, alert with a slight scowl decorating her face, searching to meet Master Fu’s gaze for him to give her a dismissal. He did so with a small nod, and with that, she called out, “Tikki, transform me!”

Tikki gave Wayzz a quick pat on the head before she was pulled into the earrings. A pink flash ran over Marinette’s body, leaving Ladybug in its wake. With a small smile, she saluted Master Fu and ran out the door.

Ladybug scurried down the stairs and burst out of the front door of the building, not wasting a second before she had her yoyo grappled around a chimney across the street. With a quick tug, it pulled her up onto the roof, and she landed squarely to survey the area. Her eyes quickly pinpointed a flurry of civilians running through the intersection to her left, so with a toss of her trusty yoyo, Ladybug was off in the direction they were coming from.

Within thirty seconds, she had hopped across a handful of buildings to find herself roosted above the scene. A low wall acted as cover while she poked her head out to observe the street below. The akumatized villain appeared to be a girl, probably around Marinette’s age if she had to guess, donned in an extravagant black tutu, garnished in thousands of golden beads and sequins and trimmed with lace. Behind her lay a dozen Parisians laying on the sidewalks, struggling against the restraint of black ribbon that encircled them. The villain leapt forward, landing before pulling herself into a pirouette, dark ribbons shooting out of her black pointe shoe to trap more unfortunate bystanders each time she straightened her leg out to gain momentum in her spin.

Ladybug was already vaulting over her cover wall when she heard a voice call out, “Hey, Twinkle Toes, wanna dance a _pas de deux_ with me? Our outfits match, after all!” Ladybug landed on the sidewalk below and ducked behind a car.

The ballerina planted both feet firmly and turned to face Chat Noir, who had run up to stand behind her, wearing his typical cocky grin and holding his baton over one shoulder. “In your dreams, alleycat! I am Pirou-hate, the best dancer in the world!” the villain declared. “I deserved the lead role, so I will get it, even if it means keeping everybody else from dancing. Especially you!” she yelled out, flicking her leg out to point at Chat Noir, shooting black ribbon to entangle him, before she made a few elegant leaps in the opposite direction to continue her rampage on the civilians.

Ladybug ran out to her partner as he collapsed backwards at the surprise of the satin suddenly pulling in tight around him. Before he could hit the pavement, Ladybug was knelt with a leg under his shoulder and hands ready to catch his head. “Hello there, My Lady. Would you like to dance with me instead?” Chat greeted, looking up at her with a cheeky smirk.

Her eyes rolled before answering, “As much as I’d _love_ to see you attempt ballet, it looks like you’re a bit wrapped up at the moment.” Ladybug stood up carefully, pushing Chat Noir back up onto his feet as she did. She noticed a bow tied in the back of ribbon and pulled on it, letting it fall around his feet.

“Have I ever mentioned how much you unravel me?” he asked, putting his fists on his hips in an obvious show of pride in his joke.

“Come on, Chaton, we have an akuma to capture.” Ladybug tossed her yoyo around a streetlamp without wasting a second, leaving Chat Noir to scoop up his baton from where it had fallen on the street and launch himself on it to catch up.

The duo followed the trail of tied-up innocents, assuring them that they would be out of there in no time. They soon found themselves on the Champs-Élysées, where Pirou-hate was twirling around once again. People ran, only to be suddenly caught in ribbon. “I will be the best dancer in all of Paris!” she cried out.

Chat glared at the evil ballerina before grabbing his baton with both hands. He was about to charge at her, until he was stopped by a red gloved hand on his upper arm. “Hey, what are you-” 

Ladybug yanked him along with her as she took cover behind a box truck. “Oh, come now, we both know I would have ended up having to untie you again if you just tried to fight her,” she said with a smirk. “Lucky charm!” she called, tossing her yoyo into the air. A small bottle of superglue dropped from the flurry and into her hands.

“We’re already in a sticky situation as is; how is that gonna help us?” Chat Noir questioned.

“Not sure, but she doesn’t know I’m here yet and I want to keep it that way. Hawkmoth seems to be letting her go about her own vendetta until I show up, so you go do what you do best and distract her while I figure it out.”

“I’m always up for a game of cat-and-mouse,” he said as he stepped back into Pirou-hate’s view.

 _That makes no sense if he’s the cat and he’s the one being chased_ , Marinette thought to herself for a moment. _Okay, okay, not important, focus Ladybug. Think._ She looked back down at the superglue in her hands, then around at the civilians laying in the street tied up in black ribbon, then glanced around the truck at Pirou-hate’s pointe shoes. Without hesitation, she ran to the closest person and made quick work of untying her. The lady stood up, thanking Ladybug thrice over before ducking into a nearby storefront.

Ladybug gathered up the pile of ribbon left on the ground and darted for another civilian. She did the same, all the while hearing her partner taunting Pirou-hate a dozen or so meters down the avenue. As she crossed to help an older gentleman, she caught a glimpse of Chat Noir wobbling a bit in an arabesque pose atop a small car. It certainly seemed to be riling the real ballet dancer up, as she had abandoned attacking citizens and was now solely focused on him. _Nice work, Chaton. Though, we’ll have to work on your form._

She continued on, and after collecting 5 people’s-worth of ribbon, she decided the wad of satin was big enough. Just in time apparently, too, as when she stepped out into an open area of the street, she saw Chat Noir struggling frantically in place against the binds of black ribbon once again, with Pirou-hate reaching out to his right hand.

Ladybug dropped the ball of ribbon in front of her and hurriedly pulled the cap off of the polka-dotted superglue, pouring it on the pile of satin.

“Let’s see how well you can evade me without the help of this,” she said as she grasped the ring between two fingers, about to slip it off. Chat let out a yelp of protest.

“Hey, Pirou-hate, want to see what I can do?” Ladybug yelled out. Pirou-hate immediately looked up at her, scowling. The heroine cast her yoyo around a lamppost and tugged at the line, allowing it to pull her as she struck an elegant arabesque pose, as if being lifted in a pas de deux. She pulled herself up onto the lamp, and quickly bound back down, holding her arms above her head and landing behind the jumble of black ribbon with a soft plié.

"Ah, Ladybug, you finally decided to show up," Pirou-hate growled, relinquishing Chat Noir’s hand. With all her might, she made a grand leap, landing in front of Ladybug. She rose up onto the platforms of her pointe shoes, about to lift a foot up to entangle the spotted heroine in front of her, only to find that she couldn’t do so. The ribbon she had landed on had all turned hard as the superglue dried, attaching itself to the bottoms of her shoes, trapping them in a mess of black. Pirou-hate’s only attacking mechanism had been disarmed.

Ladybug tossed her yoyo around Chat Noir and pulled him back over to the action. The villainous ballerina was still squirming, trying to get her feet loose, as Ladybug made quick work of the ribbon around Chat. “It’s all you,” she said to him as he wriggled free of the loosened binds.

Understanding, he called upon his Cataclysm and pressed his hand into the pile of ribbon. It all turned to ash, including the pointe shoes attached to it, and Ladybug hoisted Pirou-hate out of them by the shoulders before kicking the shoes. The black butterfly fluttered out, and she placed the ballerina back down to grab her yoyo to capture the akuma.

She went through the usual motions of cleansing it, and let the now white butterfly fly away into the beautiful blue Parisian sky. Ladybug tossed the empty bottle of superglue into the air with a shout of “Miraculous Ladybug!” A blizzard of magic swept through the city, erasing all of the ribbon that still trapped dozens of people in the streets. She looked over to Chat for their fist bump as the girl kneeling next to them was transformed back into a normal ballet dancer clad in a leotard and chiffon skirt.

The two knelt down next to her. “It’s okay now,” Ladybug assured her. “And I think you’re a wonderful dancer. I’m sure you’ll make it big someday, no doubt about it.” She smiled genuinely at the young girl before her earrings let out a warning beep.

Chat Noir offered a hand to help the girl up. “Thank you,” she said to both of them. They answered with a nod.

“All in a day’s work for us,” Chat explained with a pat to her shoulder. The girl smiled and dismissed herself.

Ladybug leaned over to her partner, “I have to get going, but can you meet me on top of Notre Dame at midnight?”

“Oh, My Lady has finally succumb to my charm and is asking me to join her in a late-night rendez-vous?” he responded, shoving a devilish grin in front of her face.

Ignoring his flirtation, she simply asked, “Well, can you or can’t you?”

“I’ll be there,” Chat Noir answered straightly. “Can I ask why though?” His miraculous gave off its own warning.

“I don’t think either of us have time for me to explain right now,” Ladybug turned, readying her yoyo, “I’ll explain everything then, okay?” She almost wished that they could just let their transformations expire right then and there, but she knew better. They would talk about it in a few hours, anyway.

So she hooked her yoyo around a chimney and was off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So anyway I hope you got through that monstrosity of a chapter. Please be gentle on me.  
> [Come bug me on tumblr.](https://sadrien-depreste.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 7

Ladybug slipped down into an alleyway and let her transformation expire as she ducked behind a dumpster. Tikki quickly darted into the purse at Marinette’s hip, where she knew a lovely strawberry macaron awaited her. Seeing her kwami hidden away, Marinette stood up and began her trek home after her little city-saving detour.

It was early evening by now, as akuma attacks were never kind to city traffic and public transport schedules, and Marinette had opted for the bus now that she couldn’t swing around on her yoyo. Sighing, she wondered where the day had gone, as she pushed open the door to the bakery. She noted her mother at the counter, attending to the daily closing duties of the shop.

“Oh, there you are, darling. I was starting to get worried,” Sabine chided. 

“Sorry, Maman,” Marinette apologized as she embraced her mother with a kiss to the cheek. “There was an attack on my way home. You know I hate those, so I hid out in a store until Ladybug and Chat Noir took care of it,” she lied.

“Call us next time, okay? Now go along and see if your father wants a hand making dinner.”

“Yes, Maman,” she sighed as she traipsed up the stairs to the apartment. She dropped her bag in her room before returning down to the kitchen to prepare vegetables.

━━━━

The evening was uneventful, which Marinette was thankful for. After dinner, she quickly retired to her bedroom. The next few hours were dutifully filled with sewing, sketching, and more sewing (by hand now, as it was getting late to be running her machine), as she waited for midnight to draw closer.

It was quarter-of when Marinette decided to call upon her transformation. She hopped out onto the balcony and her yoyo was skillfully thrown to wrap around a street sign below. Ladybug jumped down, allowing her momentum to pull her through the arc of her swing before retracting her yoyo, leaving her flying through the air.

She loved this feeling of freedom, soaring through the historic streets of Paris. The movements had become second-nature by now, leaving her mind to wander. Ladybug found herself glancing at the centuries-old buildings she zipped past. She remembered Tikki mentioning a previous Ladybug here in the same city during the French Revolution. As the wind blew past her face, Marinette casually wondered what that Ladybug’s life might have been like. Surely, she had run across some of these very same buildings in her time. Perhaps her and that Chat Noir had even met on top of Notre Dame a few times as well. The thought warmed her, she was honored to be the continuation of such an amazing lineage of heroines.

 _What else had Tikki mentioned about that Ladybug? That she and Chat had revealed themselves to each other almost immediately?_ Suddenly, she didn’t feel so warm anymore. _Well, that’s what this meeting is going to tackle_ , she reasoned to herself. 

Ladybug landed on a rooftop adjacent to the broad side of the cathedral. She scanned the grand building for any sign of her partner before noticing a dark figure perched upon the tall central spire, waving down at her. _That show-off._

She tossed her yoyo around the base of the spire and swung over, standing on the peak of the roof. Looking straight up, she watched as Chat Noir adeptly made his way back down to her. “You know, when I said ‘on top of Notre Dame’, that isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Ladybug said to him with an eye-roll as she offered out a hand to help him down the last few feet. He gladly took it, and smoothly slid into a kneel after hopping down, placing a chaste kiss on the back of it.

“I wanted to be able to _spot_ you coming,” Chat explained as he stood up. Ladybug glowered her eyes at him, trying to deduce whether that was another of his puns or not.

She checked her yoyo before securing it to her hip. “It’s still a few minutes to midnight, what time did you get here? Here I thought I was going to be early.”

“I could never dream of keeping My Lady waiting,” he answered with a cocky grin. This earned him another eye-roll from Ladybug. He took a seat on the roof, patting the space next to him to encourage Ladybug to join, which she did. Turning his head to her, he asked on a more serious note, “So what did you want to talk about?”

Ladybug met his gaze for a moment before averting her eyes to her feet further down on the sloped roof. Silence hung in the air heavily as she considered how to start. She took a breath, still looking down, as she started, “Have you ever wondered how you ended up with your miraculous?” She finally looked up again, connecting with the vibrant green of his eyes.

Chat’s brows furrowed under his mask and he reached a hand to the back of his neck pensively. “I… I guess I never thought too much of it, y’know?” She didn’t know. She had been hesitant about even accepting the role in the first place after all, convinced she wasn’t the girl for the job. She thought back to her first couple of encounters with Chat Noir. He had been so enthusiastic about being a superhero, she supposed it was fitting that he hadn’t really questioned it. “...But I guess now that you bring it up, I am curious,” he finished.

“Well, I know how. Er, I mean, I don’t know how exactly he chose you, but I do know who did.” She saw Chat’s eyes widen at this revelation.

“What? Who, and how?” he asked brightly before sinking into himself a bit, “And why didn’t I know about him?” That question was quieter, spoken like a cold breeze as he looked down at his own feet.

Ladybug sighed. “He… didn’t want us knowing about him, actually. But I found something… important-” that word came out of her mouth questioningly as she considered how much to disclose “-and my kwami insisted that I bring it to show him. His name is Master Fu, he lives here in Paris, in the 13th arrondissement. He’s the last guardian of the miraculouses.”

Chat Noir’s only response was a simple “huh” of a curious acknowledgement as he studied the city.

“So anyway, the reason I wanted to meet tonight is, well…” she continued as she absent-mindedly grabbed the yoyo from her hip and began twirling the string around a finger, “he suggested that I bring you to meet him too.” She felt Chat’s eyes return to her, and she met them with her own. “I mean, if you want. He figures if I know about him, there’s no reason you shouldn’t too. That’s not fair to you.”

The boy smiled warmly at her, not his usual toothy grin, but a genuine smile. Marinette felt her stomach do a little flip, though she wasn’t sure why. “Yeah, that’d be awesome,” Chat answered. 

Ladybug smiled back at her partner. _Now, how do I go about telling him why I want us to meet with Master Fu? Should I even do that tonight? Should I wait until we meet with Fu?_ This is when her smile began to fade, furrowed brows and a slight pout overtaking her features. 

Chat must have noticed- of course he would, as he laid a gentle clawed hand on her shoulder, “Something else you wanna talk about, Buginette?” That nickname suddenly resonated through her chest. The same ending to her civilian name sent a shiver up her spine, but it was quelled when she met his concerned regard. _No, it wouldn’t be right to bring him to Fu and only then spring the identity talk on him_ , she decided.

The heroine sighed deeply, looking down at her hands and untangling the yoyo string from her fingers, only to tangle them up again. She wasn’t sure how to begin; she wasn’t even sure if he had really considered their little predicament that the Owl had introduced. He admitted that he hadn’t thought much about how he got to be Chat Noir, after all.

She realized she had been silent for a bit too long now, but her partner was thankfully understanding, allowing her to take her time to answer. “I’ve just been… thinking about the whole secret identity thing lately is all,” Ladybug admitted quietly, still intently studying the string in her hands. She heard Chat Noir gasp lightly next to her.

“Are- Are you serious?” he stammered out. Ladybug finally turned back to face him. He was sat up straight as a board and wide-eyed, staring at her incredulously.

“That’s… actually kind of why I wanted you to come meet Master Fu. I mean, aside from the fact that you shouldn’t be left in the dark. He recommended that we talk about how we want to handle it.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, we can do that,” Chat Noir replied nervously, a claw coming up to scratch at the side of his face. Marinette couldn’t help but think he looked almost dejected. _Did he think I was going to tell him right then and there or something?_

“Er, yeah.” She considered whether or not to bring up the M. Damocles issue now, the thing that started this all. _I probably shouldn’t_ , she thought, _it’d only exacerbate things if he really hasn’t thought of it yet. We’ll talk about it with Fu_. “So, uh, you want to meet with him sometime next week? If you can, that is.”

“My schedule is usually pretty busy, so I’m not sure what next week looks like for me, but I’ll take a look when I get home and leave a message on your yoyo?” he proposed.

“Yeah, that works. I’m free most evenings, and I’m sure Master Fu would understand if we had to do something late-night like this if we can’t work something out. I’ll check for your message tomorrow morning?” Ladybug asked as she rose to her feet.

Chat followed suit, reaching for the baton on his back. He gestured to it, “Yeah, count on it.” He hesitated for a moment. “So I’ll see you later then?”

Ladybug readied her yoyo in her hand. “Yeah, see you later.” Chat gave her a two-finger salute and was turning to leave when his name slipped from her lips. “And Chat Noir,” she said, “thanks for coming tonight.” She flashed him a sweet smile.

“Always a pleasure, My Lady.”

And then Ladybug watched him go, filled with the odd sensation that things would never be the same now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes excellent. All according to keikaku.  
> And by that I mean the only thing I had written in my outline for this chapter was "meeting on top of Notre Dame: no heckin idea how I want this to go down lmao guess I’ll just wing it and see what happens yolo"  
> Because, y'know, I'm a Serious Writer and all.  
> Thanks for all of your support so far despite that, it really means the world to me and I hope you're all still enjoying it!  
>  _bisous!_ :*  
> [Come bug me on tumblr.](https://sadrien-depreste.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4k words zoo-wee mama that's the longest single chapter I've written so far. Also please excuse my lack of chemistry knowledge, I literally just googled something along the lines of "basic chemistry quiz multiple choice" to get the example question and answers I used here. Oh and what is proofreading and editing, we just don't know, I never claimed this to be my magnum opus lmao I'm sorry.

Marinette awoke the next morning to see a barrage of texts from her best friend.

They informed her that she and Alya were going to the trendy new self-serve café down the street from the school for lunch tomorrow, and there was no arguing about that fact, and that she should be sure to dress extra cute.

 _That girl is up to something_ , Marinette thought to herself, knowing her friend all too well. She shrugged it off and sent a confirmation text nonetheless, looking at the time on her phone before finally rising out of bed. It was mid-morning, she had slept in due to her late-night outing the previous evening. Thankfully, it was Sunday, and with the bakery closed, it was typically the one day of the week she could catch up on the sleep that her duties of being a student and a superheroine usually stole, Hawkmoth permitting. So she slumped down from her loft and down to the kitchen for breakfast.

After eating, she climbed back up to her room to gather some clothes to change into after a shower. Once in the bathroom, she turned the knob, shed her pajamas, and stepped into the glorious stream of the shower.

It was only then, under the torrent of soothingly hot water, that she remembered what Chat had promised last night, that he would check his schedule and leave a message on her yoyo about when would be a good time to pay Master Fu a visit. She remembered him mentioning that he usually had a lot going on, and she idly wondered what sorts of things that might be. Perhaps he did a sport or was in a club, or maybe just had a very active social life. He seemed to be around her age, though he could be a year or two older, so maybe he had a job? Marinette giggled to herself as she imagined him, mask, ears, and all, wearing an apron behind the register of a supermarket.

She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and stepped out into the relative cold of the rest of the bathroom. Quickly, she toweled off, threw on her clothes, brushed her teeth, and parted her hair into its signature twin ponytails, so that she could get back up to her room and transform.

Once in her bedroom, she gently nudged Tikki, who was still half-asleep on her pillow. “Psst, I gotta transform, just for a minute,” Marinette whispered to her kwami. Tikki hmphed as she woke up fully, and then gave a small nod.

A call of “transform me!” and a handful of seconds later, Marinette was donned in her iconic spots. And sure enough, the yoyo at her hip began beeping. Sliding it open and holding it up to an ear, she heard none other than Chat’s voice on the other end, albeit a bit tinny across the recording. She half-expected his message to begin with some sort of joke or dramatic flirty greeting in his signature debonair voice, but it doesn’t.

“Hey, Ladybug,” the message began simply, “so it looks like Tuesday afternoon will be best for me. Let me know if that works for you, okay? If not, we can work something else out.” There was a pause. “I can’t wait to _chat_ with you again, My Lady. See you soon!” There it was, and Marinette felt herself let out a huff of exasperation, though the corners of her lips said otherwise. The line went silent.  
She slid her yoyo shut as she racked her brain for a moment, pacing her room as she searched for any memories of making plans for Tuesday. Finally satisfied and sure that she should be free, she opened up her tool again and hit dial.

It rang for twenty seconds before going to voicemail, not that she had expected him to be transformed to answer. Ladybug shook her head lightly upon hearing the automatic message he’d recorded for it. “Has the cat got your tongue? Leave a message!”

“Hey, so yeah, Tuesday afternoon should work for me,” she began. “How about we meet on top of Gare D’Austerlitz for 4:30 and then we can head to Master Fu’s together, he doesn’t live too far from there. I’ll let you know if anything changes, and I expect the same from your end.” Her tone lightened a bit, “See you then, Chat.”

The rest of the day passed by in the most beautifully mundane way for Marinette. The dark grey clouds hanging low over the skies of Paris all morning had finally decided to let loose come early afternoon, leaving the entire capital feeling lethargic under the dim rain. Marinette was no exception as she lazily scrolled through the internet, helped with a few household chores, and sketched in her notebook until night eventually fell, and she fell into bed with it.

 

━━━━

 

Her phone rang particularly early that morning. She groaned, rolling over in bed away from where it lie on the pillow next to her, in an attempt to escape the irritating sound. A small red paw nudged her cheek. “It’s Alya, Marinette, come on, you should really answer it,” Tikki urged, trying to stir the sleepy girl.

Marinette blindly reached behind her, patting around until her hand caught the phone. Not even looking, she hit the answer button and brought it up to her ear. “Hello?”

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” the voice on the other end chirped. Marinette was borderline disgusted by how bright Alya could sound so early in the morning. “We’re going out for lunch, remember? So you gotta get up and get yourself all dolled up, okay?”

“Okay, okay, I’m up,” was all Marinette managed to mumble out as she pulled her body out of bed.

“Great! I’ll see you in a bit then!” _Click._

And so Marinette turned off the alarm that was due to go off in 8 minutes and did as she was told. A bit of blush and lip gloss, a burgundy corduroy jacket, and a quick breakfast later, and she was out the door, yelling back that she’d be going out for lunch instead of coming home.

 

━━━━

 

Marinette had to admit, it actually was quite nice to get to school and not have to make a mad dash to her classroom to get there in time. Perhaps she’d have to Alya for more wake-up calls; they were certainly more convincing than the monotone alarm that she’d snooze at least once before finally getting up.

It gave her the time to greet some of her classmates as she made her way through the courtyard with her best friend. Everybody around seemed to buzz with a certain kind of energy under the crystal clear skies after yesterday’s gloom. Marinette caught Juleka letting out the most lively laugh she’d ever heard from the girl, and even Chloé seemed a bit more chipper as she showed off her new shoes to a very enthusiastic Sabrina. And upon entering the classroom, Marinette had even succeeded in saying “hi” to Adrien without stuttering or tripping on the step as she walked by him to her seat! She felt today was going to be a good day.

That feeling slowly faded in the wake of hours of history lessons and chemistry equations, but it managed to return a bit upon the dismissal for lunch. As she and Alya made the few minutes’ walk down to the café, the latter explained how she had looked up this new place a bit and was so excited to try out their house soup that had been raved about online.

The girls soon arrived, and when they stepped inside the little store, Marinette heard the voice next to her call out, “Hey Nino! Hey Adrien!" Marinette’s eyes widened, then quickly turned to a glare at her sly friend. This wasn’t a coincidence. She had planned this, and Marinette chided herself for not catching on earlier. _That’s why she stressed that I look cute today, huh?_ Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by an elbow to her side. “Say hi, Marinette,” Alya said discreetly through a smile.

She turned her attention to the two boys that had started approaching. She could be mad at Alya later for throwing her into this situation, but for now, she had to act like a normal human being in front of the love of her life. Marinette knew this was completely intentional on the blogger’s part. So she raised a hand and forced it to wave as naturally as possible.

With all of her attention focused on calming her heart rate, Marinette barely registered Nino’s greeting of “Hey, cool running into you two here” followed by a quick wink at Alya.

“Yeah,” Adrien agreed with his friend, “I thought I was just coming here to get Nino to quit bugging me to try their cake, but now I’m really glad I did! Food is always better with more company,” he said, his eyes sparkling. “Er, if you two want, that is,” he added on after a moment.  
“Of course we do, right Marinette?” Alya answered a smidge too eagerly, looking over to her starstruck friend beside her.

“Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah, we’d love to!” Marinette parrotted. A brief silence fell over the conversation. “So, um, let’s all buy our tables and sit at that food out there,” she suggested, pointing at a small just outside the window. It wasn’t until she heard a heavenly chuckle from the blond boy in front of her that she realized her error in speaking.

“Well, I don’t know if I’ll buy a whole table, but I am absolutely gonna get some soup,” Alya said teasingly.

And with that, the teens dispersed, perusing the selection of ready-made food to choose for their lunches. Marinette picked out a salad, and then found herself standing in front of the desserts, trying to decide between a cookie or a slice of cheesecake, knowing she’d share a bit with her kwami. She looked down to the purse at her hip to see that it was cracked open ever-so-slightly, with Tikki poking out to observe the choices. A little whisper of “cheesecake” settled Marinette’s mind.

She reached out for the slice in its little triangular package, and about halfway there, her hand collided with another. “Sorry,” she reflexively apologized as she looked over to the other person. Her heart jumped into her throat when her blue eyes met green.

“No, no, you first,” Adrien insisted to her, his hand retreating to the back of his neck as the other motioned for her to continue.

“But it’s… it’s the last slice,” Marinette noted, “and you said Nino’s been pestering you to try it. I- I was thinking about getting a, um, a cookie anyway.” She did her best to keep her eyes from shifting around as she spoke, but without much success.

Adrien sighed in defeat, “Yeah, I’m sure he won’t leave me alone until I try it.” And then, much to Marinette’s dismay, he apologetically asked, “At least let me buy the cookie for you?”

All of the knowledge of the French language promptly evacuated Marinette’s brain at that. She was silent, her mouth gaping like a fish as she stared up at him.

“Marinette?” Shoot, she had been quiet for too long and now it was weird.

“Oh, um yeah, if- if you insist,” she stammered out, hastily grabbing a cookie while Adrien went for the cheesecake.

The two walked up to the register in silence, Adrien placing his food and water bottle down on the counter. “Oh, and her cookie, too,” he said to the cashier with a motion of his head toward the girl next to him as he fished around in the bag at his side, eventually pulling out a couple of bills. She watched, still a bit dazed, as Adrien and the cashier carried out the transaction, and then heard him say something along the lines of “I’m going out to join the others,” as he collected his purchases and walked toward the door.

Marinette paid for the rest of her food, walking to the exit slowly to allow herself to calm down. _He was just being courteous, it doesn’t mean anything_ , the rational half of her brain tried to remind the teenage girl half. _And besides, it’s not like one cookie is a huge dent in his wallet. It wasn’t a big deal to him_. She took a deep breath and gathered up a natural, friendly smile as she stepped back out into the open air of Paris.

As she approached the table where her friends sat, she heard them discussing the quiz they had had in chemistry class that morning.  
“Yeah, say Marinette,” Alya turned to her, “What did you get for question three?” Upon seeing the bewildered look on Marinette’s face as she took her seat, she elaborated, “You know, the one about salts with whatever ion are usually insoluble in water?”

“Oh, that one was easy, I said phosphate.”

Alya abruptly turned to Nino to her other side and stuck an accusatory finger in his face, “Hah! I told you!”

“Hey, you didn’t get it right either,” he retorted defensively, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, but at least _I_ didn’t think it was ammonium. Potassium is a much more reasonable guess.”

Marinette found herself giggling at their antics as she opened up the clear plastic container. It was bittersweet, however, as the first bite of her salad was laced with the acidic taste of jealousy from the not-quite-a-couple in front of her. She decided that taste didn't suit her, and built up the courage to glance over at Adrien on her other side, whose face was also lit up with a smile as he bit into a sandwich.

“You know,” he whispered, cupping his mouth with his free hand as he looked to Marinette, “I almost picked ammonium too. Just don’t let _her_ know that.”

Another giggle, this one more shy as she covered it with a hand and took a moment to think of what to say. She was drawing a blank, as she often did around him, but thankfully, he continued. “So Marinette, I don’t get to talk to you too much, how have things been going for you?”

“Oh, um, they’ve been, you know, going?” she spat out, followed by a clearing of the throat. “I mean to say, they’ve, uh, they’ve been going well. I’ve been doing well. Just the usual and all that.” That was, of course, a small lie, as she had been intermittently freaking out about superhero things the past few days. But it was true that in her normal life, there wasn’t really anything to report home about.

Alya seemed to disagree, however, as she broke off her argument with Nino about ionic salts to butt in, “Girl, stop selling yourself short! Adrien, have you seen some of the things she’s designed lately?”

“Er, no, I-” Adrien tried to say quietly before Marinette rebutted.

“Well, yeah, they’re nice and all, but they’re not a big deal,” she tried to wave off.

“Nonsense! You think I could think of stuff like that? Let alone draw it? Or _make_ it?” Alya directed her attention towards Adrien, “You gotta have her show them to you sometime.”

“Yeah, dude, they’re totally sick!” Nino added.

“You’ve seen them too? Wow, Marinette, you’ve really gotta show me now if even _he_ thinks they’re cool!”

Marinette shrunk back in her seat by a hair, flattered but still a bit embarrassed by the high praise. “I left my sketchbook back in my locker at school, but yeah, I’ll show you sometime,” she offered.

“Awesome, I can’t wait,” Adrien answered, glowing with genuine enthusiasm.

The group ate their lunches together, talking about whatever it is teens talk about. School, jokes, the city’s personal superheroes, they discussed it all, until eventually, the lunch hour was drawing to a close. Marinette nibbled at her cookie, and broke off a small piece to stealthily hand to the little creature in her purse. Adrien leaned over to her and spoke.

“Do you want to try a bite of my cheesecake?” he asked, pointing at it with his fork.

That was it. This boy was trying to kill her. She was sure of it now. Despite that, Marinette found it within herself to answer coolly with a dismissive wave, “Oh no, you really don’t have to. I’ll try it another time.” But it was too late, he had already gotten a piece on the fork and was passing it to her. She gripped it and brought the treat to her mouth.

She had to admit, it was delicious. The tangy, creamy goodness coated her tongue and tickled every taste bud delightfully. Sure, she was used to amazing sweets, but her parents’ bakery didn’t make cheesecake, so it tasted particularly scrumptious, and it was made all the sweeter knowing that Adrien had offered it to her. She hummed in pleasure as she savored it.

“Good, isn’t it? Guess I’ll have to buy you a whole slice sometime,” he chuckled. Marinette’s eyes shot back open to look at him. He really was going to be the death of her, she swore on it. “I mean, if you don’t mind, of course,” he added nervously, though a smile still danced in his eyes.

Marinette swallowed and broke her silence, “Of course I don’t mind!” She winced at how eager she sounded as the words flew out past her lips a bit too fast. To her relief, Adrien seemed unfazed by it, simply taking his fork back with a sweet smirk as she handed it to him.

The moment was interrupted by an ever-hungry Nino. “This was fun, we should all try to go for ice cream again sometime soon!” he suggested. “How about tomorrow evening?” 

“Sorry, I can’t,” Adrien and Marinette answered automatically, both lowering their heads in shame.

“We’re all used to him not being able to do things, but you, Marinette?” Alya interrogated.

“I- I have to help the parents in my bakery! Er, help _my_ parents in _the_ bakery. There’s a huge custom order,” Marinette nodded as she finished, deciding that her quick excuse was good enough. “Some other time?”

“Okay, but I’m holding you to that,” Alya said with a wink.

 

━━━━

 

The second half of the day was mostly uneventful, aside from Marinette being called out by one teacher for not paying attention. She couldn’t help it! Not after what had happened at lunch! Of course she was lost in her thoughts instead of in the laws of thermodynamics. Despite that, she got through it, though her mind was no less distracted as she walked home after the final bell.

Once home, Marinette flopped back-first onto her bed, covering her face with her hands as she squealed. “Ahhh, Tikki, I can’t believe that really happened! Can you? It was perfect! Just, ahhh!”

The little red kwami darted out of the purse to float next to her holder’s blushing face. “I know, Marinette, I heard it all.” She patted the girl’s forehead with a tiny paw as a smirk grew on her face. “And you know… if you wanted to go get ice cream, you could have rescheduled with Chat Noir.”

Marinette giggled. “You’re only saying that because _you_ want ice cream,” she teased, peeking through her fingers to look at the kwami. “And besides, I don’t want to put off this meeting at all.” She sat up. “I really just want to address the situation as soon as possible, you know? Get things out in the open so I don’t have to worry about what he’s thinking about it anymore.”

Tikki nodded in understanding. “I’m not going to tell you what to do in the end, but just know that I am really proud of you for taking this step to discuss it with him. It’s important that you and Chat are honest with each other as partners, and I’ll support whatever you two decide is best.” She flew up to rub against Marinette’s cheek affectionately.

“Thanks, Tikki,” she said as she placed a gentle kiss on the kwami’s head.

 

━━━━

 

Marinette was all nerves in class the next day. All of that tension culminated in, upon the ringing of the final bell, her knocking over her open backpack next to her in her haste to get out, causing all of her belongings to spill on the ground between her and Alya. She quickly collected her things and shoved them back into her bag, all the while, her friend asking her why she was in such a hurry, her response being that she needed to get home as fast as possible to help with that custom order. She darted for the door before she could register Alya calling “Wait, Marinette!” after her.

She practically skipped home, trying to ease some of her anxious energy. When that didn’t work, she decided to duck into a nearby alley to transform so she could swing around the city, and so she could drop her backpack on her balcony so she wouldn’t have to go through the apartment and alert her parents of her return home. She didn’t want them to come up to her room and find nobody there while she was out, after all.

By the time that was all done, there was still about twenty minutes before her planned meeting time with Chat Noir, so she took her time getting to the Gare D’Austerlitz. After a detour through a park to cheer a crying child, she was back on her path to the meeting spot, and hooked her yoyo around a corner of the station to be perched atop it with five minutes to spare.

Ladybug paced nervously on the edge, watching the hundreds of people below. She was entranced as she watched, wondering what sort of secrets those people could be holding. Surely, none of them could be as serious as the identity behind a superhero. No, that wasn’t her place to judge; everybody holds secrets for their own reasons, and those reasons can be just as important to them as this was to her. She did this to protect her loved ones, so Hawkmoth wouldn’t target them, it wasn’t uncommon to withhold truths for the safety of others. But perhaps one of them down there held the secret of being Hawkmoth… 

That train of thought was cut short when she saw a dark silhouette leaping across the roofs in the distance. He was perfectly punctual as he shot his baton against the pavement below, at such an angle to launch himself straight up to meet Ladybug.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I keep My Lady waiting?” Chat Noir asked in greeting as he landed expertly.

“So you made it, eh, _chaton_. And hardly, I’ve only been here a couple minutes,” she dismissed. Grasping the yoyo from her hip, she asked, “Ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.”

“Might as well bite the bullet and do it. Follow me.” And she tossed her yoyo around a chimney across the way and swung away.

 

━━━━

 

It only took the two heroes a short minute to reach Master Fu’s building with their skills at maneuvering through the city. Ladybug dropped down from the roof to land in front of the main door, and looked over the Chat to check that he was there as she turned the knob. They entered, Chat Noir trailing as Ladybug silently lead the way up the stairs to the second floor and down a short hall. She stopped in front of a door.

She asked him with a wordless nod, to which he responded in the same way, and she opened the door.

They saw in the room, Master Fu sitting in his usual spot, with two mats in front of him. On each mat was a pillow. On the left pillow sat a wheel of camembert, and on the right sat a pink macaron. In between the mats was a folding paper screen.

The old man looked up. “Hello, Ladybug. Hello, Chat Noir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm at an impasse here because I wanted to write this strictly from Marinette's POV since it seems kinda late to be changing perspectives, but I had an idea and I really wanna write a bit from Adrien's perspective starting in Chapter 10 because it'd be hard to get across just through Marinette. What do y'all think? Would that be too jarring? idk
> 
> [Come bug me on tumblr.](sadrien-depreste.tumblr.com)


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